Tennessee U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) was among the majority of House members who voted to advance a resolution establishing the congressional budget for the federal government for fiscal year 2025 on Thursday.
The budget resolution, filed as H. Con. Res. 14, passed by a 216-214 vote.
Two Republicans – U.S. Representatives Thomas Massie (R-KY-04) and Victoria Spartz (R-IN-05) – joined all Democratic members in voting against the resolution.
Burchett, at one time considered to be among a small group of Republicans who were holding out against the resolution, voted in favor of the measure after meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), saying that a vote in favor of the measure “will put America back on a path towards fiscal responsibility.”
“This budget includes major spending cuts. I have been assured it will not increase the national debt. I was elected to cut spending and support [President Donald Trump’s] agenda, and that is exactly why I was a Yes vote today,” Burchett added.
Earlier Thursday morning on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Burchett expressed concern about the country’s financial state, criticizing the budget framework for lacking meaningful spending cuts.
“I’ve been concerned about our fiscal state, and currently, it’s not going so well. So in this latest budget framework or whatever you want to call it, people just say, ‘Oh, vote for the framework. it’s just a framework.’ But it’s not a framework, it’s our guardrails,” Burchett explained.
Burchett said he wants accountability and action on spending cuts now, further criticizing leadership for always claiming “now’s not the time” for cuts and promising reform “next time,” noting how “next time” never comes.
“Leadership and the lobbyists say, ‘Now is not the time, it’s next time.” It is always the next time. I get it, that’s the game they play…They put pressure on everybody and then get the president proud, and they start calling us and saying, ‘We need this, we gotta have this. The sky’s going to fall.’ But the sky’s going to fall if we don’t start getting in a more fiscally conservative manner,” Burchett said.
“We add $1 trillion every 100 days to the debt, so we have to have some real commitments to cuts in the $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion range,” Burchett added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
